Those on the right were already wading through the rising water in haste and terror; for already the commands of the Egyptian leaders were heard in the distance.
But the enemy was evidently delayed, and Ephraim easily perceived the cause of their diminished speed; for the road constantly grew softer and the narrow wheels of the chariots cut deeply into it and perhaps sank to the axles.
Protected by the darkness, he glided forward toward the pursuers, as far as he could, and heard here a curse, yonder a fierce command to ply the lash more vigorously; at last he distinctly heard one leader exclaim to the man next him: "Accursed folly! If they had only let us start before noon, and not waited until the omen had been consulted and Anna had been installed with all due solemnity in Bai's place, it would have been easy work, and we should have caught them like a flock of quail! The chief-priest was wont to bear himself stoutly in the field, and now he gives up the command because a dying woman touches his heart." "Siptah's mother!" said another soothingly.

"Yet, after all, twenty princesses ought not to have turned him from his duty to us.

Had he remained, there would have been no need of scourging our steeds to death, and that at an hour when every sensible leader lets his men gather round the camp-fires to eat their suppers and play draughts.

Look to the horses, Heter! We are fast in the sand again!" A loud out-cry rose behind the first chariot, and Ephraim heard another voice shout: "Forward, if it costs the horses their lives!" "If return were possible," said the commander of the chariot-soldiers, a relative of the king, "I would go back now.

But as matters are, one would tumble over the other.